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Sierra Tel Was Hacked, Say Officials

OAKHURST — Sierra Tel has announced that malicious hacking appears to have been at the root of problems experienced by internet customers over the last two days.

“We are aware of a malicious hacking event that started yesterday, Apr. 10, which has affected and in many cases temporarily disabled modems in many Sierra Tel customers’ homes,” say company officials. “We know this is very disruptive for our customers, neighbors and friends. We are doing everything we can to respond.

“We are devoting all available resources to investigating and responding to this event. The technical details of what has happened are not yet completely known. Current information suggests a malicious third party hack or software virus, simply to cause disruption, inconvenience and other harm. It appears that Zyxel modems model HN-51 are the modems affected in this incident.

“Similar recent events in other communities have often but not always involved lone hackers and amateur troublemakers. We are seeking law enforcement assistance to investigate and track down any perpetrators. We have no reason to know it involves anything unique or specific to our community or Sierra Tel, except a local occurrence of a larger ongoing problem.

“It appears that disabled modems can be reset to work by our technical staff or replaced with a different modem model, and we are assisting as many customers as possible. We appreciate your patience. We will release additional information as it becomes available.”

 

One comment

  1. This is a product of the lax infrastructure at Sierra-Tel. The company lacks direction, expertise and clear leadership due to the fact that those who are in charge of most of the critical departments are not there based on their qualifications but rather by relation. The modems in question are inferior Zyxel modems which if not properly upgraded with regular Firmware updates, pose an easy target for someone with a moderate degree of knowledge of how they function. This event clearly could have been avoided if the presumptuous atmosphere that is obvious from the moment you walk in the door did not exist…

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